Kukla's Korner Hockey

When the NHL and its new American cable broadcaster announced their deal last month, they spoke glowingly of a brave new world that included a more exciting game, more access to players and bold ventures in television broadcasting.
That knowing laughter you might have heard in the background came from Ralph Mellanby. The former executive producer of Hockey Night In Canada and a hockey producer for three American networks can be excused if he says he's heard it all before. He has — 27 years ago to be exact.
In 1978, John Ziegler, commissioner of the NHL at the time, asked Mellanby to form a committee to recommend ways to improve TV ratings in the U.S. What Mellanby and company came up with back when long sideburns were stylish the first time looks an awful lot like what the NHL is peddling more than a quarter of a century later.
"We proposed shootouts, removal of centre red line, change on the fly only, widening the blue lines," Mellanby said from his Atlanta home. "Our feeling was that to enhance the game for television, you had to have a better product on the ice.
"Here we are 27 years later and they're finally getting around to doing it."